The ambulance drove along quickly with its sirens blaring. Betty did her best to stay out of the two paramedics who were in the back area of the ambulance monitoring Huck as they drove along, but she couldn't help but worry. She'd privately loved Huck for years, as he'd been nice and friendly, even before he became a weredog, and the two of them had shared a lot of things in common. But she'd never had the bravery to ask Huck out and always hoped that he might actually ask her out, and for some reason they had never gotten out of what could be termed the "friend zone." However, after hearing a gun shot and coming out to seeing Huck laying face down on the ground, she couldn't hold it in any longer. Betty couldn't go on if he died.
She and the police officer had managed to stop Huck's bleeding, but the paramedics still had go through a lot to keep Huck's chest from filling with fluid and also replacing the blood that Huck had lost on the scene. They had bags of blood and plasma that they had on hand and had in bags connected by tubing to one of Huck's arms. The paramedics may have said that Huck was stable, but his breathing still looked weak and they hadn't gotten to removing his shirt, which left Betty looking at the large red spot on it, indicating the general area of where the exit wound was. That only left her nervous.
They arrived at the ER ambulance gates for Moon Lake General and the next phase of trying to save Huck's life began. The paramedics were quick to roll Huck's gurney out of the ambulance and carrying along the appropriate bags of blood and plasma with them. Betty quietly followed to see a fairly decent sized staff already present at a set of double doors, and all were in scrubs, as if to be ready for the required surgery.
"So what is the exact case?" one man asked as he approached up the paramedics.
"The victim was shot from behind and would appear to have gone through his lung and then out the chest," the first paramedic said to the man, "we've seen know sign that he's suffered heart damage and no complications into his left lung, as yet. Though, given that the entrance wound is zero point five inches in diameter and the exit wound is zero point seven five inches, we can assume that his right lung has collapsed."
They had stopped moving, and Betty watched as the doctor came forward to lift up Huck's shirt and glanced to the nurses. He eventually looked up to the paramedics.
"You're right, his right lung probably has collapsed, though we'll try to get an X-ray to confirm," the man spoke and looked to the others, who Betty figured to be his nurses, "though even if the lung ISN'T collapsed, we'll need to do a Posterolateral Thoracotomy to close the wounds to the lung and other Pleural Cavity injuries that bullet inflicted... from both the front AND back. We'll then need a air tube we can send down to his right lung once all the wounds are closed to inflate it. If we can get him through all that, Lycanthropic Regeneration can do the rest."
"Will he be alright?" Betty spoke up, standing behind the paramedics and close to where Huck's head rested on the gurney he'd been placed on.
"Family member?" the doctor asked questioningly.
"She's a coworker," the second paramedic spoke, "though I think she's rather close to him... or has wanted to be rather close to him."
There was a tone in the second paramedic's voice that related to what they had observed in Betty's determination to be close to Huck. It gave the clear indication that Betty might be romantically involved, in some way, with their present patient. The doctor got further confirmation of that by looking to Betty's wide and shifting eyes. They drifted from Huck to the doctor and then back to Huck again. The doctor was quick to recognize that and moved to assure Betty.
"We will do our best to make sure he'll pull through," the doctor stated with the best voice he could manage. Though he wasn't fully sure how successful he could be. Weres might be tough to kill, but that didn't mean that even Lycanthropic Regeneration couldn't be over powered, and a gunshot wound to the chest could be one of those sorts of injuries, particularly if the entrance and exit wounds were at least half an inch in diameter. "However, the operating room will need to remain sterile. If you would like, one of my nurses can escort you to waiting area."
"You'll let me know if he gets better?" Betty asked.
"Once we've completed all that we need to, yes," the doctor assured her, "You have the word of Doctor Hiram Robblestein."
Betty felt a bit relieved at that kissed the top of Huck's head before walking with one of Doctor Robblestein's nurses. While that was done, Huck was wheeled in, though for the moment he remained unconscious. They X-Rayed his chest and confirmed the suspicion that his right lung was collapsed. From there, Huck was moved to an operating room as they prepared to work on him. Additional drugs were added to his IV to make sure that he would remain asleep for the course of the operation and didn't wake up during it, as he had been awake in an off and on pattern since being loaded into the ambulance. They also began to shave the fur away from the entrance and exit wounds at enough of a length that when the surgery began, they would keep the wounds and surgery area kept clean.